The Indian National Lok Dal has condemned the hike in petroleum prices and has asked
the government to immediately roll back the increase. INLD secretary general and Rajya Sabha MP Ajay Singh Chautala said the step was anti-people and would further increase the inflation and common men would be directly affected by the increase.

Activists of the CPM hold a protest against the hike in the prices of petrol and diesel in Fatehabad on Friday.
— Photo by Sushil Manav

Budget outlay to be Rs 6,600 crore
Narnaund (Hisar), February 15
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said the next financial year’s budget to be presented shortly would have an outlay of Rs 6,600 crore. The figure was thrice the amount for the first budget after he took over as Chief Minister three years ago.

Delimitation
Leaders will have to find moorings afresh
Chandigarh, February 15
With delimitation of constituencies a reality now, many senior leaders of Haryana will have to look for new homes. For, their earlier constituencies have either been reserved for the Scheduled Castes or they have undergone a sea change in terms of caste configurations following addition or deletion of vast areas from the previous constituencies.

Scholars question US global-welfare stance
Karnal, February 15
Panelists at a national seminar today lamented the USA’s “pseudo-global-welfare” stance in order to impose its supremacy in “global governance”. They stressed the need for incorporating western theories of public administration for the betterment
of society.

School Shooting
Revolver owner arrested
Gurgaon, February 15
The police has arrested Raj Singh Dalal, the owner of the revolver, which was used by the two boys, Vishal and Rakesh (not their real names), to kill their classmate Abhishek Tyagi on December 11, 2007. The district court has sent Dalal on a 14-day remand.

Raj Singh Dalal (right), whose revolver was allegedly used by a student to kill his schoolmate, Abhishek Tyagi, on December 11, is produced in a court in Gurgaon on Friday. — PTI
photo

3 booked for murder bid
Jind, February 15
The police has registered a case against three persons in connection with the attempt to murder incident that took place in the city last evening.

Youth held for rape, murder
Jhajjar, February 15
The police today arrested a youth, who had allegedly killed a six-year-old girl after raping her at Bahrana village of the district.

Frost-hit Farmers
Centre to seek report from state
Rohtak, February 15
In view of the large number of complaints of frost damaging standing vegetable and oilseed crops in the region, the centre has decided to seek reports in this regard from the governments of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and other affected states.

Rebel Cong MLAs given another week to reply
Chandigarh, February 15
Rebel Haryana Congress MLAs Bhajan Lal, Dharampal Malik and Rakesh Kamboj were today given one week more by Speaker Raghubir Singh Kadiyan to file their replies to the notices served on them in connection with the petitions submitted by three other Congress MLAs seeking the disqualification of the rebels from the assembly for floating a new party.

Newly-wed dies; husband, in-laws booked
Sonepat, February 15
Priyanka of Agwanpur village, who got married to Neeraj of Sanpera village on February 11, died under suspicious circumstances at her in-laws’ house yesterday.

Sewage treatment plant
Chandigarh, February 15
The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has constructed a sewage treatment plant of 10 MLD in Kanheli village in Rohtak district.

Freedom fighter dead
Rohtak, February 15
Daya Chand (90), a freedom fighter of the district, died here today. He is survived by his wife, three sons and a daughter. The cremation will take place in his native village,
Kharawar, tomorrow with state honours. — TNS

Chandigarh, February 15
The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has condemned the hike in petroleum prices and has asked the government to immediately roll back the increase.

INLD secretary general and Rajya Sabha MP Ajay Singh Chautala said the step was anti-people and would further increase the inflation and common men would be directly affected by the increase.

The INLD leader said the Congress government at the Centre hiked the petrol prices for the sixth time since coming to power. He said there was already a severe energy crisis in Haryana as there was no electricity and water for farmers, industrialists and common men.

Hike in diesel prices would also adversely affect the farmers who were already suffering due to selling of LPG cylinders and fertilisers on the black market.

FATEHABAD: The CPM on Friday organised a demonstration against the hike in prices of petrol and diesel.

The party also organised corner meetings in the town where Ram Kumar Bahbalpuria, district secretary of the CPM, Krishan Swaroop Gorakhpuria, a state committee member, Chhatarpal Singh, a district committee member and Joginder Singh Bhayana, a CITU leader, addressed people on the issue.

Terming the BJP and the Congress as anti-people, the CPM leaders said both worked against the interests of common people to appease multinational companies. They reminded that prices of petroleum products were increased seven times during the BJP regime.

SONEPAT: A large number of activists of the district unit of the CPM led by district secretary Sharda Nand Solanki on Friday staged a demonstration in the town against the hike in the prices of petrol and diesel.

They handed over a memorandum to deputy commissioner D.P.S. Nagal demanding roll back of the hike.

After assembling near the local bus stand, the protesters marched through town’s roads shouting slogans against the Central government and reached at the mini-secretariat to hand over their charter of demands.

Solanki blamed the Congress-led UPA government for hiking the prices without taking into account the interests of common people particularly farmers.

“Instead of increasing the prices, the government could have easily reduced its duties to balance the hike in crude oil prices,” Solanki, who is also the vice-president of the Haryana Kisan Sabha remarked.

Narnaund (Hisar), February 15
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said the next financial year’s budget to be presented shortly would have an outlay of Rs 6,600 crore. The figure was thrice the amount for the first budget after he took over as Chief Minister three years ago.

Addressing a Congress rally here, he said this was proof enough of his claims that Haryana had made unprecedented progress during the past three years under the Congress rule. He said it also indicated that he was taking the state in the right direction for making it the number one state in the country.

Hooda said the major problem Haryana was facing was that of power shortage but he had inherited this problem. However, he was trying to buy power from other states at considerably high rates to keep supply to the maximum.

He said by the time his term came to an end Haryana would have solved this problem to a large extent, as many of the projects he had started would be generating power by that time.

The Chief Minister said his political opponents had been exposed for their corrupt practices and favouritism. People of Haryana had realised that only the Congress was capable of delivering the goods.

He inaugurated a new bus stand and a tehsil complex here and announced that an industrial training institute, a rest house and a stadium would also be built here.

Incidentally, transport minister Mange Ram Gupta attended the inauguration of the bus stand in his capacity as transport minister. However, he did not attend the rally and left Narnaund immediately after the bus stand inauguration fuelling rumours that he was developing differences with Hooda.

HPCC chief Phool Chand Mullana and working president Kuldeep Sharma were among those who attended the rally.

According to PTI, Hooda announced that having waived off interest on cooperative loans of small farmers, petty shopkeepers and artisans, the state government was now considering on how to waive off the remaining debt of these poor people. The scheme to waive off interest on cooperative loans aimed at benefiting the poor to the tune of Rs 830 crore and so far they had been benefi ed by Rs 400 crore.

Leaders will have to find moorings afresh
Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 15
With delimitation of constituencies a reality now, many senior leaders of Haryana will have to look for new homes. For, their earlier constituencies have either been reserved for the Scheduled Castes or they have undergone a sea change in terms of caste configurations following addition or deletion of vast areas from the previous constituencies.

The number of Lok Sabha constituencies and the assembly constituencies remains the same at 10 and 90, respectively. The number of reserved constituencies also remains at 17.

With the delimitation, now the Jat voters will be the single largest community in five of the 10 Lok Sabha constituencies. A number of assembly constituencies, which were earlier open to all communities, have now been reserved. Similarly, certain reserved constituencies have now been converted into general constituencies. But the Ambala and Sirsa Lok Sabha seats continue to remain reserved.

Since the assembly elections are still two years away, the affected MLAs have time to adjust to the changed political geography of the state. However, the MPs have only one year to regain their moorings.

Among the MPs who will find a major change in their constituencies are union minister Rao Inderjit Singh (Mahendragarh), Naveen Jindal(Kurukshetra), Jai Prakash (Hisar) and Kuldeep Bishnoi (Bhiwani). The Delimitation Commission has merged the Mahendragarh and Bhiwani constituencies. The new constituency will be known as the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh constituency.

Among the MLAs who have lost their constituencies are former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, one of the rising stars of Haryana politics Randeep Singh Surjewala, former Haryana Youth Congress chief Nirmal Singh and a veteran INLD leader Sampat Singh.

Karnal, February 15
Panelists at a national seminar today lamented the USA’s “pseudo-global-welfare” stance in order to impose its supremacy in “global governance”. They stressed the need for incorporating western theories of public administration for the betterment
of society.

Experts from different fields of social sciences had gathered at the inaugural function of the two-day UGC-sponsored national seminar on “End of history - myth or reality” at Dyal Singh College here today.

Dr Tariq Islam, reader, department of philosophy, Aligarh Muslim University, contested the political essay, “End of history”, written in 1989 by Francis Fukuyama, who was then an official of the US state department.

He opposed the idea that Islamic politics was posing a threat to the world.

“The powerful US media has highlighted the wrong face of religion to protect its interests in oil-rich countries like Iraq. An official Islamic nation like Pakistan is always preferred by the USA to India,” he remarked.

ADGP
V.N. Rai, who was the chief guest, said it was wrong to say that the concept of liberal society had ended problems of developed countries.

The presence of a large number of beggars and prostitutes in an affluent state like the USA was a social indicator of developed societies. He observed that even in India, the concepts of liberty and equality had failed.

Dr V. Eshwar Anand, assistant editor, The Tribune, criticised the governments of Haryana and Punjab for not adhering to the directions of the apex court regarding fixing a minimum tenure of two-year posting for IAS and IPS officials.

He urged politicians to implement the police reforms in toto in the larger public interest and for setting up a police accountability commission to address complaints against civil
servants.

Dr Anand condemned the recent unrest created by the Mumbai Navnirman Sena in Mumbai. He criticised the state police and the government for remaining mute spectators to the violence.

In his keynote address, Dr Sanjay Sharma, editor, Indian Journal of Political Science, said instead of “succumbing to western political theories”, there was need for adopting points that were beneficial for the uplift of society.

He said there was need for introspection by countries like the USA which claimed to be the caretaker of democracies but were continuously “interfering” in the internal politics of Iraq and other countries.

Gurgaon, February 15
The police has arrested Raj Singh Dalal, the owner of the revolver, which was used by the two boys, Vishal and Rakesh (not their real names), to kill their classmate Abhishek Tyagi on December 11, 2007. The district court has sent Dalal on a 14-day remand.

Dalal was missing since the incident of the school shootout, in which two boys of class VIII of Euro International School, Gurgaon, had shot dead their classmate in the school campus.

He was arrested as the license of the revolver was issued in his name.

Dalal, an employee of state-owned power distribution organisation, Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam, had sent a registered letter to the Gurgaon police on December 19, 2007, in which he wrote that he was living in Islaampur for the past 25 years and basically belonged to Bahadurgarh.

He stated that he had gone to Hisar for zonal games from December 7 to 9 and returned on December 10. He went to his native place, Bahadurgarh, on December 11 and came back in the evening. On December 12, he searched for his revolver and found it missing.

He said he went to the Sadar police station to lodge a compliant about it, but nobody paid attention to him. Therefore, he was writing a letter to inform the police about the missing revolver.

A police official said Dalal after interrogation also gave the similar statement and said that his revolver was missing and he had no clue about it. Dalal was arrested from Asaudha village.

Jhajjar, February 15
The police today arrested a youth, who had allegedly killed a six-year-old girl after raping her at Bahrana village of the district.

The body of the girl was recovered from a well in Ismaila village of Rohtak district yesterday.

According to information, the girl, Pooja, daughter of Lakshmi Narayan, was last seen with the accused, Monu, resident of the same village. The accused was allegedly taking her outside the village near a pond.

Rohtak, February 15
In view of the large number of complaints of frost damaging standing vegetable and oilseed crops in the region, the centre has decided to seek reports in this regard from the governments of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and other affected states.

Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has assured the All-India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) that appropriate steps would be taken regarding the matter after he got the reports.

A delegation of the sabha, comprising former MP Nilotpal Basu, AIKS joint secretary N.K.Shukla and sabha’s state president Phool Singh Sheokand, had met Pawar yesterday and sought relief for the frost-hit farmers.

Chandigarh, February 15
Rebel Haryana Congress MLAs Bhajan Lal, Dharampal Malik and Rakesh Kamboj were today given one week more by Speaker Raghubir Singh Kadiyan to file their replies to the notices served on them in connection with the petitions submitted by three other Congress MLAs seeking the disqualification of the rebels from the assembly for floating a new party.

While Bhajan Lal and his two associates sought four weeks’ time, they were asked to give their replies by February 22. The rebels were earlier asked by the Speaker to file their replies by February 15.